Experiments
by El loopy
Summary: He had never felt so confused in his entire life. He needed to talk to someone. Someone who knew all about this 'kissing' business. He needed to talk to Penny. Set after 4x21 (where Amy kisses Sheldon). Oneshot. Penny x Sheldon.


**I am a Penny x Leonard fan and an Amy x Sheldon fan but there is just something about Penny x Sheldon that I love. I wrote this after the episode where Amy kisses Sheldon, so before the boyfriend/girlfriend contract and before Penny got back together with Leonard. It has taken me this long to put it up. If you are not a Penny x Sheldon fan then don't read.**

First kiss

_Knockknockknock. _"Penny." _Knockknockknock. _"Penny." _Knockknockknock. _"Penny."

His whispered insistence got a response as the door opened and the girl herself stood there with a confused look.

"Sheldon, what are you doing here? I thought you were with Amy?"

"I was," the physicist said with his customary aloofness, but there was an air of uncertainty hovering around him. "May I come in?"

Penny shrugged and opened the door wider. Sheldon slipped inside and stood in the centre of the room, glancing over the mess and fidgeting. Mentally she took note that she was still slightly drunk and she would want to kick herself in the morning for letting Sheldon in at…2am!...urk!...when she should really be yelling at him for potentially waking…

"Amy kissed me," said in one rushed breath.

Scrap all that stuff about yelling.

"Seriously!" Penny couldn't help the slightly high pitched note of surprise creeping into her voice. How to react to this? Something like a small band of panic seemed to be constricting her stomach, but now wasn't the time to examine it. She had to handle this carefully if she wanted more information and he was looking like a flighty deer.

"So…" she sat down and Sheldon promptly mimicked her on the other end of the couch, looking nervous.

"Did you like it?" she asked tentatively, slowly, as though not to startle him.

"I'm not sure," came the sudden, bolder reply. This was analysis, he could do that. "It was…fascinating."

'_His first kiss. Amy gave him his first kiss,' _a small voice whispered in Penny's head, sounding disappointed. She mentally shushed it.

"It was very brief," Sheldon continued, "Amy went to be sick afterwards."

"Girl never could hold her drink," Penny muttered, looking at the carpet with an unimpressed expression.

Sheldon had stopped talking and was looking at his hands resting on his knees.

Penny leaned over to examine his face, which was clearly working something through.

"Sheldon," she touched his shoulder lightly and he jumped.

"Yes Penny." His eyes looked at her but still weren't completely focused, his brow creased in a puzzled frown. She considered not asking the question she wanted to but found it spilling out anyway.

"Do you want to do it again?"

Sheldon's brow cleared and he gave an almost imperceptible sigh of relief that someone had verbalised the question that had been perplexing him. Life had been so uncomplicated before all this 'kissing' business. The mysteries of the universe were nothing in comparison.

"I'm not sure." He sounded like he was giving a lecture to a room full of students. "There are elements of it that are certainly fascinating and curiosity dictates that they would be worth exploring…"

_All she needed to hear._

"Sheldon?"

He stopped mid-flow and looked at her…and froze to the spot when for the second time that night lips pressed against his own. It was brief, very brief and was over before he fully realised it. Although she wasn't touching him anymore Penny was still very much invading his personal space, giving him a measured look, her eyes almost nervous.

"Sheldon?"

He looked like he was weighing up what had just happened and was still stunned.

"Yes Penny."

"I'm going to do that again."

She gave him a second to protest but he only stared at her. This time she moved more slowly, tilting her head so she fully covered his mouth with her own. His breath caught and sent a jolt through her. It took all her self-control to pull back. She'd caused a reaction! She – Penny – had made Sheldon Cooper feel something, something human, and that mattered. That really, really mattered. She hadn't realised quite how much until now. She wanted to make him react again, only more. Image flashed through her head with a frightening intensity and she clamped down on them firmly. They were new and strange and unexpected and she needed time to consider them before she decided that she had lost her mind. Meanwhile she still had to explain to Sheldon precisely what had compelled her to do that…when she didn't know.

The cause of her distress merely blinked a couple of times and murmured, "More fascinating still." He examined Penny a few seconds in total silence.

"Tell me," he started, leaning over, hands on his knees, "what is the social protocol after this?"

"Damned if I know," Penny groaned and collapsed back against the sofa cushions. She needed time to process this, maybe a decade or so. She remembered the little save areas on video games where you reappeared if you ran out of lives. "Can't we just," she flapped a hand, "go back to the last save point or something?"

There was a beat and then, "Like rebooting a crashed computer?"

Typical. He had to change the metaphor. She shut her eyes and sighed. "Yeah, why not."

"Well," Sheldon stood up, filing away the computer analogy for future use, "thank you for your advice Penny. It has been very informative."

She forced herself to her feet and followed him to the door.

"You're welcome sweetie," she murmured in resigned tones as she prepared to shut the door.

"Oh, and Penny?" She looked up and he was right there. Far, far too close.

He smiled, "I liked it," and shut the door behind him, leaving her standing in shell shocked silence, desperately trying to process…

"Screw it," she exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air, "I'm going to bed."


End file.
